How many times have you heard the word no in your life? Probably quite a few. Maybe even hundreds or possibly thousands. Probably you are even guilty of saying NO.

The thing about no, and not to put too fine a point on it—well, it’s negative.

Nobody believed IBM and Apple that computers would be small enough for personal use and be in every house in North America and Nicolaus Copernicus, when he revealed his sun—at—the—center model of the universe, met with outcry from the church. You can bet that they heard NO a few times in their lives. But they didn’t let NO stop them. So, what was it that made them keep going? What was that one thing that made them continue on with their quests? What made them turn NO’s into yes? The answer is curiosity, an open mind, and a willingness to take risks.

To that, we would also like to add passion, and (not that we’re biased or anything) education.

You could say that education led men like Copernicus and Bill Gates to discover their passions, which in turn led them to discover great things.

Let’s look at a few more examples:

Science that led Ben Franklin to harness electricity

Astrophysicists that created the technology for space travel.

Orthopedics lead to the development of artificial knees and hips

Engineering lead to the creation of television

What do you think were the reaction to that first physicist who said that it was possible to send people into space and walk on the moon? Ridiculous! And when Ben said that he was going to fly a kite and capture electricity? Preposterous!

When you’re told NO—when you’re staring into the face of adversity—when the challenge is the hardest—that’s when the passionate rise to the occasion, use what they know and change the world.

To do this requires adopting a paradigm shift, a change in thinking. When someone tells you No, consider it an open challenge to achieve excellence.

The greatest minds of our time have seen NO not as an endpoint but as an opportunity.